> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.periscope.sh/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# DORA metrics

> Understand the four key DORA metrics that measure software delivery performance and how Periscope tracks them.

DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment) metrics are four key measures of software delivery performance identified by Google's DORA team through years of research across thousands of engineering organizations. They are the industry standard for measuring how effectively a team delivers software.

## The four metrics

| Metric                                                | What it measures                            | Good means...                        |
| ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ |
| [Deployment frequency](/metrics/deployment-frequency) | How often code reaches production           | Shipping small changes frequently    |
| [Lead time for changes](/metrics/lead-time)           | Time from PR merge to production deployment | Fast path from code complete to live |
| [Change failure rate](/metrics/change-failure-rate)   | Percentage of deployments that fail         | High-quality releases                |
| [Mean time to recovery](/metrics/mttr)                | Time to recover from a failed deployment    | Fast incident response               |

## DORA performance levels

The DORA team classifies organizations into four performance levels based on benchmarks:

| Level      | Deployment frequency         | Lead time         | Change failure rate | MTTR             |
| ---------- | ---------------------------- | ----------------- | ------------------- | ---------------- |
| **Elite**  | On demand (multiple per day) | Less than 1 hour  | 0-5%                | Less than 1 hour |
| **High**   | Weekly to monthly            | 1 day to 1 week   | 5-10%               | Less than 1 day  |
| **Medium** | Monthly to every 6 months    | 1 week to 1 month | 10-15%              | 1 day to 1 week  |
| **Low**    | Less than once per 6 months  | More than 1 month | 15%+                | More than 1 week |

Periscope automatically classifies your team against these benchmarks and displays your DORA level on each metric panel.

## How Periscope computes DORA metrics

DORA metrics require two data sources working together:

1. **Pull request data** from GitHub — captures when code is merged and ready for deployment
2. **Deployment data** from your CI/CD pipeline — captures when code reaches an environment

Periscope automatically links deployments to pull requests and computes all four DORA metrics from the combined data. Once both sources are connected, metrics are calculated and updated continuously.

## Data requirements

To see all four DORA metrics, you need:

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Deployment frequency" icon="chart-line">
    Requires deployment events sent to the [deployment webhook](/integrations/deployment-webhook). No PR data needed — this metric is purely about how often you deploy.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Lead time for changes" icon="clock">
    Requires both GitHub connected (for PR merge timestamps) and deployment events with `commitSha` matching your merged PRs. The more accurate your commit SHAs, the better the lead time data.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Change failure rate" icon="circle-xmark">
    Requires deployment events with accurate `status` fields. Periscope counts deployments with `status: "failure"` against the total.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Mean time to recovery" icon="rotate">
    Requires deployment events with `completedAt` timestamps. Periscope measures the time between a `failure` deployment and the next `success` deployment for the same service.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Why DORA matters

DORA research consistently shows that high-performing teams — those with elite DORA metrics — also achieve better business outcomes:

* **Throughput and stability are not tradeoffs.** Elite teams deploy more often *and* have lower failure rates.
* **Speed enables quality.** Shorter lead times mean smaller changes, which are easier to review, test, and roll back.
* **Recovery speed matters more than prevention.** No team avoids failures entirely. The difference between elite and low performers is how fast they recover.

Periscope gives you these metrics without manual tracking, spreadsheets, or surveys. Connect your systems and the data flows automatically.

<Card title="Get started with DORA metrics" icon="rocket" href="/quickstart">
  Follow the quickstart to connect GitHub and send your first deployment event.
</Card>